In a recent op-ed, Senator Rand Paul railed against international aid, ultimately arguing for his proposed Stop Funding Religiously Oppressive Regimes Act.

While this may sound well-meaning, he intentionally overlooks how his proposal would do harm to precisely those working for a more tolerant, freer society. Instead of proposing meaningful reform, he offers a hatchet to international aid, rather than a scalpel that protects aid that does the most for American interests.

The senator implies that all international aid goes directly to the recipient government’s hands, feeding into a common misconception. However, this is patently false. He also fails to differentiate among military, economic, and humanitarian aid, and by doing so ignores that American aid funds nonprofit organizations in these countries, many of which are religious organizations, such as the Catholic Relief Services.

His entire argument focuses on the oppression within states such as Pakistan. But he then calls for a law that would cut aid from the nonprofit organizations whose work is vital to change in these authoritarian regimes.

These organizations establish schools, including those particularly aimed at girls’ education in places where they are typically excluded. These organizations engage in democracy and human rights promotion and provide basic healthcare and immunizations, exactly the types of programs that change lives and build positive views of the U.S. in process.

I am positive that Senator Paul knows the difference between aid that goes to nonprofits and that which goes straight into the hands of foreign governments. Yet, by failing to acknowledge this distinction, he pushes a policy that would undermine the very people working for progress in oppressive regimes.

Cutting off aid to nonprofits does not punish authoritarian governments – it punishes those striving to build a freer, more just society. If the senator truly cares about advancing liberty abroad, he should champion targeted reforms, not blanket cuts that would do more harm than good.

Timothy S. Rich

Bowling Green